The Mark Stoops Rock and a Hard Place for Kentucky Football

Mark Stoops is in a very interesting place in his tenure at the University of Kentucky. At this point, we pretty much know what Stoops is going to bring to the table. A hard-nose, gritty team. A confident, sometimes cocky team. A team that is more competitive in the best league in the country than they may have ever been. A coach who is approachable and well-liked by the fans. I think in the modern era, Stoops is unquestionably Kentucky’s best football coach by a large margin.

But his success has also put this program in a strange place and a place where Mark Stoops is between a rock and a hard place for several reasons:

THE SCHEDULE

Look, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, it’s just become a brutal task the Cats are going to face year in and year out. Texas hasn’t been this good in almost two decades. Oklahoma may have dipped from national title contender but is still one of the best 10-15 programs in the whole country. Missouri seems to be rolling. The only programs that seem to be “struggling” right now are Florida and Vanderbilt. This means that Kentucky will have 7 or 8 very difficult games each and every season. No matter which program you are looking at, whether Georgia or Kentucky, is just going to face a gauntlet unlike any team has in college football.

So what are the fans supposed to do? On the one hand, we are going to have a lot of amazing games every year and see some top-tier teams at Kroger. That will be fun. But Stoops’ program hasn’t exactly been killer at home in his tenure. As I have pointed out in previous posts, Stoops loses over two conference games at home on average every year. He’s only had two seasons in his tenure where they have lost just one game at home.

The point being, it’s great to see an amazing schedule. It’s not as great to see more losses.

THE RESOURCES

With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, the resources available to Kentucky (and SEC teams) will be nearly unparalleled. Kentucky has already seen the fruit of these increased revenues in improvements in practice facilities and at Kroger Field. That will only continue moving forward. But that also continues to remove that as a built-in excuse for why Kentucky can not compete at a high level.

It is true that the other SEC teams will have those resources but I view this more as a Louisville/Bowl Game situation. Frankly, the resource advantage over the Cards should mean Kentucky takes a firm grip forever in that rivalry, assuming it continues. The same goes with most bowl games.

But that means Mark Stoops is in a hard place as well. He can’t say that the playing field isn’t level for Kentucky anymore. In fact, Kentucky has advantages over most teams now. We can no longer play the “little guy” or “underdog” card. We are a big boy in college football, simply because our access to money is so strong.

THE HISTORY

With the changing landscape of college football, the biggest issue Mark Stoops is facing is that he’s been at Kentucky so long, with so much success this fanbase hasn’t experienced, that we want more. We want to know what the next big step will be. And Mark Stoops and his staff keep saying they want more. They are not content with 8-4 seasons and finishing 3rd in the SEC East. But having that mentality when the league is taking another step up puts Stoops in a tough spot.

The reality is that Kentucky could very well go 7-5 this year and have a really good team. They could go 3-5 in the SEC and not lose any game they shouldn’t. Mark Stoops is actually going to be “punished” because he’s won more games than most. He has two 10-win seasons. And once you give a fanbase a taste of that kind of success, they want it all the time. But can Stoops actually get UK to 10 wins over and over and over again? Or are those just aberrations on what is actually a 7-win program?

I actually have sympathy for Mark Stoops this season. I think he’s great and in the big picture, I don’t want him to leave. But his reality has changed. He will be facing more challenges, albeit with more resources, than he has ever faced. It is no certainty that Kentucky can continue to win at the level they have in the past 10 years. But fans are typically not ones to accept stepping back in wins, no matter the circumstances. So Mark Stoops is in a hard place. A fanbase clamoring for more but a conference situation setup for less. If Stoops can elevate UK once again then we might be in for a great ride. But there is a real possibility the reality of the situation means Kentucky will struggle in the new SEC. And what will fans do from there?

I’ll tell you this, I don’t envy being Mark Stoops right now.